Category: Visual Journal, Research and Evaluation

I had then moved back to basics and wrote a list of ideas that came to mind over the following few weeks.

Cobbled streets with street lighting

Inside church building – worshipping – someone on their knees?

Hand placed on shoulder – to show God’s presence

Mosaic to show the different parts of my face

Smashed mirror portrait

Broken to whole – photo frames smashed

Looking through a keyhole into someones quiet time with God

Close up on hair – ‘he knows how many hairs are on your head’

Mirror in front of face pointing up to the ‘mountains’, ‘sky’, ‘trees’ etc – inspired by quote from ‘for KING & COUNTRY – shoulders’. “I look up to the mountains, is my strength coming from the mountains? No. My strength comes from God, who made heaven and earth and the mountains.”

Interpreting bible verses such as Zephaniah 3:17 ‘The Lord your God is in our midst, a might one who will save; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over your with loud singing”.

I noticed that my faith is made up of so many elements. A longing to belong and be loved, someone to turn to when I’m lost and in despair as well as rejoicing, a feeling of security and overwhelming love.

I began researching ways in which people had been more creative with their images to tell a story. I find uk.pinterest.com a really good tool to use to find unique and creative photography inspiration.

On a trip to London, I visited The Photographers Gallery. The exhibition they were running was feminist avant-garde of the 1970’s (works from the verbund collection).

This particular image, Zerstörung einer Illusion, 1977 Karin Mack stood out to me and it made me want to be more creative and hands on with my image making.

So, I began Photographing using a heart shaped mirror, to symbolise the quote from ‘for king & country’. I asked the sitter to tilt the mirror at a slight angle to capture to skyline. I experimented with the focus to decipher if i wanted the image in the mirror or be in or out of focus.

Although I was quite pleased with these images, I didn’t think they were symbolic enough of the point I was trying to put across so I did another shoot.

When I first began this project, I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go with it. I knew the “feeling” and concept that I wanted to portray but didn’t know how to describe it through my imagery.

I started in the studio. I made these images very literal as a basis to start my thought processes and creative journey. I aimed to show the light and dark sides of my faith. The successes and the troubles.

Dark

Light

I love these images, they story they tell and the feelings which are obvious in the sitters eyes, I almost found them too obvious. I want my images telling the story of my faith to be almost abstract in their story telling, so that the viewer is able to get their own individuals feelings from the imagery. I also felt that they didn’t exactly describe my relationship with God very well, more my feelings through day to day life.

I have many different passions and obsessions but I wanted to focus on one which is very close to my heart. My faith. This is something that shapes who I am and what I do. However, many people have what I believe is the wrong idea of Christianity. I think many people focus on religion – a set of rules and a judgemental state of mind. However, I want to portray in my images my relationship with God and the church. ‘A church is not a museum for good people, it’s a hospital for the broken’ – Jefferson Bethke.

I haven’t been able to find many photographers who are Christian or who attempt to capture their faith in a way that I connect with. However, this is what I did find.

Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk, known primarily for his writings on spirituality and the contemplative life and his autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain.

Jim Grover recently won the ‘faith through a lens’ competition with his image of communion being given to a parishioner.

Jacob a. Riis was a photographer who’s ‘intentions weren’t fame, but to change the world’. ‘How the other half lives: studies among the tenements of new york’ was a result of his time in New York with the immigrants and homeless and was published in 1870.